1000 Religious Zionist Rabbis Meet in Jerusalem

A thousand religious Zionist rabbis met in Jerusalem and talked about the unity of Jews and Jerusalem. Rav Kook would have rejoiced.

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Arutz Sheva Staff, 18/05/12 01:57

Center: Rabbi Z.Melamed, Beit El

Hezki Ezra

On Israel's Independence Day, 45 years ago, in 1967, the annual festivities were taking place at the Merkaz HaRav Kook flagship religious Zionist yeshiva in Jerusalem, when the venerable Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook zts"l, rose to speak and broke into an anguished cry -

"Where is our Hevron? Where is our Jericho? Where is our Shechem? Where is every bit of Eretz Yisrael? How is it that we accept that the verse that says 'and they divided my land' has come to pass?"

He told the awestruck students "I could not be truly happy [seeing the lack of these holy sites in the partition borders] on the first Independence Day [in 1948]".

The next day, Nasser closed the Straits of Tiran.

The students had reason to recall his words with awe, when three weeks later, his prayers were answered and Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem and Jericho returned to Jewish hands.

In continuation of this love for Jerusalem and every inch of the Holy Land, approximately a thousand religious Zionist rabbis, including old and young rabbis, community leaders, educators and rabbis in uniform, met on Thursday at the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Jerusalem for a first of its kind Jerusalem Day conference.

The rabbinical conference, which was held in honor of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Reunification) Day, reunited 45 years ago in the Six Day War, dealt with the unity of Jerusalem and with unity in general.